Friday, January 31, 2014

Camino 2013 - Day 38: Boente To O Pedrouzo

I was tired when I woke up on Day 38. It was not a good start for the day. Fortunately this would turn out to be a good day anyway.

Sunrise fighting the clouds over a corn field.

We left Boente and stopped in Arzúa where I'd stopped last time. We found a grocery store and stocked up on food and then stopped in a bar/restaurant and had breakfast.

While I started out tired I felt better as the day went on. We passed the automated advertising that nearly scared the poop out of me last time. It was a recording about an albergue activated by a motion detector hidden behind a sign. This time there was a television in a glass box showing a video advertisement and more signage and music playing ... much less surprising.

We were talking to a pilgrim we knew. He had met Brierley and had his guide book signed. Brierley writes the most popular Camino guide on the Camino: "A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James". He was walking the Camino again to update his guide. I have to admit I cursed his name at times. So many pilgrim's follow his book religiously which results in huge waves of people stopping in the same towns and sometimes even the same albergues. We tried to bypass most of the Brierley stages this Camino aiming for the smaller places in between stops recommended by the guide. That, unfortunately didn't help too much as many of the savvy pilgrims also tried to avoid the Brierley stages and these smaller places filled up too. I was hoping to run into him and make some suggestions but I never saw him.

Ahhhhhh!

Our goal for the day was Santa Irene. We reached there and examined the two albergues. One looked a bit run down. The other looked nice and had a nice kitchen but, when we asked how far it was to the nearest food store we were told it was two kilometers away. This seemed ridiculous since the next town was three kilometers away. It took only a little thought and discussion before we set out for the next town.

The three kilometers were mostly down and fairly easy and I am grateful for that. This would be our second long day in a row and I was a bit tired. Having said this, I felt a lot better than I expected I would this day. It helped that my blisters were practically gone and my feet were feeling pretty good.

As we entered the town of O Pedrouzo we started running into pilgrims we knew. It seemed most of the people we'd met along the Camino were all converging on this town. It was nice saying hi and exchanging stories. Everyone was excited about tomorrow and the walk into Santiago de Compostela.

The rest of the afternoon was occupied with chores, naps, eating lunch and dinner, and chatting with people. Most of the people we knew were divided between two albergues but there was a bar about halfway in between where everyone seemed to congregate. The weather turned ominous and rain came and went most of the afternoon.

The rain would be a foreshadowing of the next three or four days. Our weather luck that we had early on and after the meseta was starting to turn once again. I went to sleep, once again, to the sound of hard rain outside the albergue.